The CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk has revealed that the company will purge inactive accounts on its platform.
With this announcement, followers of different accounts is expected to drop.
Twitter had a policy that addresses inactive accounts where it stated that users should login into their accounts every 30 days. The policy is to help inactive from being removed.
On Monday, Musk announced that Twitter will remove accounts that have been inactive for several years.
He said the purging might lead to losing of followers.
“We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop”, the Twitter boss said in a tweet.
We’re purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2023
Following the announcement, Musk also revealed that some usernames will be available, but didn’t mention how to access the usernames.
Although, the company once talked about selling-off the usernames through online auctions as a means to generate more revenue.
Recall that Twitter now charged users to acquire the verified blue checkmark.
Subsequently, the platform pulled down all existing verified checkmark and only the Twitter Blue subscribers are retaining the checkmark.
In 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion. Since then, he has continued to experiment different changes in the platform.
As at June 2022, Elon Musk had over 100million active followers, but as at May 2023, his followers had skyrocketed to 138million.
It could also mean that he could be affected by the purging considering that some inactive accounts are on his followers’ list, having joined Twitter since 2009.
Many social media experts argues that the moves by Musk is geared towards generating revenue. However, more updates are still expected regarding the purging.